Both Sides Now: Moments in American Music

National Theatre’s Lyttelton Exhibition Area from 7 April – 1 June will host a photographic exhibition portraying the 1960s singer-songwriters living in Laurel Canyon and the new wave bands in downtown 1970s New York. This juxtaposition of two completely different movements in music have been made available by the Corbis Photographic Archive

Using the work of two photographers, this showcase gives us a chance to reflect on two seminal moments in popular music emerging from gatherings of like-minded people in areas on opposite sides of America. New Wave bands such as Talking Heads, The New York Dolls, Patti Smith and The Ramones were documented by Chuck Pulin whose description by Smith as “New York’s house photographer” meant that he gained access to some of the most pivotal moments in the music scene in downtown Manhattan music clubs CBGB and Max’s Kansas City. These iconic clubs became a social hub for musicians and artists in the 1960s.

In contrast, working in 1960s California, photographer Henry Diltz profiled the likes of Joni Mitchell, The Mamas & the Papas, The Doors, and Jackson Browne. Being the official photographer of the Woodstock and Monterey Pop Festivals gained him the space to document the singer-songwriters living in Laurel Canyon, an area of Los Angeles, in the late 60s.

Taking place concurrently in London and New York, Local History captures a fleeting but profound moment of creative intersection in the careers of three exalted Post-war artists: Donald Judd, Enrico Castellani and Frank Stella.